Next step in project is to take creek's temperature

Published: Thursday, March 28, 2013 at 05:58 PM.

Last May, Burlington and state officials completed a Little Alamance Creek stream rehabilitation project for a stream that passes through City Park.

Now, state-contracted environmental scientists are beginning a five-year evaluation process to see how Little Alamance Creek’s ecosystem has improved since the project began in November 2011.

For months at the end of 2011 and into summer of 2012, the creek was roped off while the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources worked to restore Little Alamance’s ecosystem, improve water quality and mitigate flooding through an Ecosystem Enhancement Program project.

Prior to the project, the stream was polluted due to lawn maintenance and an inadequate riparian buffer, a vegetative area bordering a water body that naturally protects it.

Kristie Corson, EEP project manager, said last year that the city already had a “no mow zone” along the stream, but the project extended that another 50 feet. The project also included planting a grass layer of cereal rye along the stream to control immediate erosion, and naturally flowering plants that will reseed each year and continually prevent erosion.

Additionally, ARCADIS Engineering and Shamrock Environmental Corporation created a level spreader at the point where the creek enters City Park at a culvert beneath South Church Street, which diverts the street water into a natural sifter to be strained before entering the stream.

All those efforts seem to be working, according to preliminary data collected by Ray Bode, senior environmental scientist with 3e Consulting, Inc.

Last May, Burlington and state officials completed a Little Alamance Creek stream rehabilitation project for a stream that passes through City Park.

Now, state-contracted environmental scientists are beginning a five-year evaluation process to see how Little Alamance Creek’s ecosystem has improved since the project began in November 2011.

For months at the end of 2011 and into summer of 2012, the creek was roped off while the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources worked to restore Little Alamance’s ecosystem, improve water quality and mitigate flooding through an Ecosystem Enhancement Program project.

Prior to the project, the stream was polluted due to lawn maintenance and an inadequate riparian buffer, a vegetative area bordering a water body that naturally protects it.

Kristie Corson, EEP project manager, said last year that the city already had a “no mow zone” along the stream, but the project extended that another 50 feet. The project also included planting a grass layer of cereal rye along the stream to control immediate erosion, and naturally flowering plants that will reseed each year and continually prevent erosion.

Additionally, ARCADIS Engineering and Shamrock Environmental Corporation created a level spreader at the point where the creek enters City Park at a culvert beneath South Church Street, which diverts the street water into a natural sifter to be strained before entering the stream.

All those efforts seem to be working, according to preliminary data collected by Ray Bode, senior environmental scientist with 3e Consulting, Inc.

Bode explained 3e Consulting is contracted by NCDENR to monitor the stream over a five-year period, to make sure the erosion problem has been mitigated.

“We’re counting the plants, and we’re seeing how much sediment is moving through the stream,” he said.

Concerning the plants, Bode said, “The buffer area was planted with native species, and the idea is to reestablish a native vegetative community that will act as a filtering mechanism.”

The saplings, shrubs and other greenery is looking healthy, and the baseline data Bode collected Thursday from Little Alamance Creek looks good, he said.

“It looks fine, as far as the snapshot I’m getting now,” Bode said. He and other environmental scientists will revisit the stream annually each fall, and periodically in the summers for the next five years.